1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the field of communications, and in particular to handling digital certificates on mobile wireless communications devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In S/MIME and similar systems where digital certificates are used to establish identity, there are mechanisms in place to check the validity of the certificates. As an illustration, the OCSP (Online Certificate Status Protocol) process could be used to check the validity of a certificate every time an electronic message (e.g., e-mail message) is sent. This allows a person to determine if the certificate for a communications partner was valid at the time that a message was sent from them or to ensure that it is still valid when a message is to be sent to them.
However, checking certificates every time or too often would most likely result in slowdowns, lost battery life and higher data costs—especially in the case when dealing with a group of people or when a conversation is proceeding with messages going back and forth (e.g., checking each time for each recipient is not wireless friendly).